The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-29
LEGALIZING H0RNING.
THAT is WHAT 1T is CLAIMED
BRANTLEY'S BILL DOES.


---
One of the Evils of the Naval Stores
Trade Explained Why There Should
be a Remedy How the Trade is
Affected by Horning Interesting
Points About the Naval Stores
Business.
1t seems that some of the naval stores peo-
Ole are not quite so willing let the Brant-
lev naval stores bill ~ as it is, as they were
when they first read it, They have not at
TEMPTED to have any organized action taken
with regard to it, but several protests and
letters bearing upon it have been sent to
Senator Brantley, at Atlanta They think
that if there is to be legislation it should aim
to prevent horning instead of to legalize it
as this Brantley bill does. The main COM
plant of the producers has been against
horning, and it seems funny, in their opin-
ion, that Senator Brantley, who represents
them, should advocate a measure to legalize
that practice Anyone who reads section
of the Brantley bill carefully can see that
horning is made honorable, and the factors
are rather curious to know what Senator
Brantley's purpose is in making it so. Tho
section in question reads as follows;
SEC. s. Be ii further enacted by the authority
aforesaid, That all buyers of rosin shall have
the right to erase or remove from the roSln bar
rels the inspectors brand designating the grade
of said rosn, and to substitute therefor any
private device, sign or mark, provided always
that said private device sign or mark so sub
stituted is not the same as any of those used by
the inspectors in this State to designate the
grade or quality Of rosin.
LEGALIzING A swINDLE.
Section says that it shall not be lawful
for anyone other than sworn and bonded
inspector to erase or change any mark or
grade put upon the barrels of rosin or tur-
pentine by an inspector, yet section per-
nlits the buyer to substitute private mark
or hieroglyphic and accomplish the same
purpose as if the grade mark had been
erased and another substituted One OF the
leading factors said yesterday that the
Brantley bill would make lawful a swindle
that the factors and majority OF the buy
ers had been fighting for years. For,
said he, ga dishonest man can buy lot of
K rosin, and, after erasing the grade, mark
il with the word Man. say, or if he de-
sires to raise it two grades he would prob
ably adopt the characters N-X,' which
would be thought to indicate extra N and
thus by a very simple means the law would
be evaded."
SIS the system of horning extensively
carried on berep was asked.
buyers, but by them it is made a regular
business and one or two of the buyers have
made almost a monopoly of the buying
business by the dishonest horning practice"
HOW THEY ARE CAUGHT.
show can they control the business by the
use of this systemr'
"By underquoting everybody. For ex-
ample, one buyer will offer a consumer a
lot of rosin of a specified grade at a certain
price One of the dishonest buyers will
quote the same grade at Z to 10c. barrel
less, and he will make the sale, and here is
where they are caught. Suppose the
sale is 1000 barrels of NJ rosin. Next day
the seller will be in the market not for
NJ rosin, but for 1000 barrels of X, or some
lower grade, and, of course, we all know
that he horns it and sends 1t out as M.
These horners act in collision with certain
other buyers, and have them mark on the
board at the Exchange fictitious sales at
prices to suit their purposes, and thus they
are frequently enabled to buy cheap grades
at prices TO suit themselves, while they send
them out as better grades, and at the prices
OF the grades they are represented to be.n
"Why don't the customers discover these
tricks"
''Some of them do and send in reclama-
tons for the difference and the reclamations
are promptly paid Never q word is said
a horner can afford to do that for when one
man catches him three or four will be de
ceived, and what is made on
the latter more than compen-
safes for what is lost on the former.
In many casys rosin is unloaded from the
car or vessel and rolled into a shed, where
it remains for months, perhaps, and then it
is taken out and used, but no particular at
tention is paid to the grade, and as the ques-
ton is never raised, the seller makes his
profit"
HOW IT is WORKED.
"How can such a complete monopoly of
the roSin trade be obtained by these menT'
81 should not say that they have a mo-
nopoly Of the business. They control the
domestic trade, but not the foreign;
though, by their practices, they hamper the
foreign trade SO that they force down the
prices and expel healthy competition. This
is the way they manage their business. Be
fore the season begins they find out exactly
what stocks are in the hands Of consumers
in New York, Boston, Philadelphia
and every point in this country,
and also in Europe. They then
obtain the best possible estimate of what the
supply will be. They make it point to
sell the entire demand, and they can do it.
because they can undersell everyone eAe by
horning. The naval stores business IS
conducted through buyers, and there are
comparatively few of them In the whole
trade, so it is an easy matter for one firm to
handle them all when they are doing bust
ness in way that will catch them
"Why do not the consumers enlghten
themselves on the grading of rosinF'
Because they are not experts themselves
and it is an expensive business to grade it.
Most of the consumers take it on faith,
hence it is that it is SO easy to perpetrate
frauds upon them"
"Why don't the factors and honest buyers
combine against these firmsln
'Most of them are afraid When factor
approaches one of these firms and announces
that they are going to fight the horner asks
Well, who will buy the factors rosin,' and
then there is a scared factor on hand,
and tho buyer is in the same position. But
TO come back TO the bill. Horning
has been in violation of the Code
of Georgia for years. Sections 1867. 1865
and 1859 make it unlawful, and anyone who
is guilty of 1t may be prosecuted but the
statute is strangely worded and on that ac-
count the factors and honest buyers are
afraid to take the matter into court. for
judges and juries have such peculiar ways
of looking at things that there might be
some slip, and it would be a very unpleas-
ant thing to institute the prosecution and
have it fail
TITRpENTINE uonNTNc